Inertia is a huge problem for us as advisors. We show people wonderful solutions to their problems and it seems like they just can’t pull the trigger to take action. They agree that our solutions are great. They agree that they should move forward… but they just want to wait.
One technique that works extremely well for me is the “cash-in-hand” technique. I use a 21-point checklist to have the clients discover their dissatisfaction with their current situation. As part of that checklist they discover how much in unnecessary fees and unnecessary taxes they are paying.
Those numbers range from as low as $600 a year to as high has $24,000 a year… but the average was right around $3,200 a year. When I show people this on paper they say, “Wow, that’s a lot.”
And then do nothing. I needed to make a stronger impact, so here’s what I did…
I have a cigar box with $3,000 in hundreds and fifties in my desk. After I got through all of the unnecessary fees and taxes I ask them, “Can I show you how much money that is?”
They always look at me in a puzzled way and then agree.
I take out my box of money and I pull out the wad of cash. I then count out the money slowly into a stack right in front of them.
“100, 200, 300….” Until I count out the amount they are spending unnecessarily.
Every time I do this their eyes get huge… even people worth 3 or 4 million dollars!
Then I say, “It’s like someone walking up to your door on January 1st every year and handing you this stack of money.”
(If the amount is higher than my $3,000 cash, I simply use a shorter time span…6 months or even a quarter).
I then pick up the stack and hand it to them and I let them continue to hold it as I say, “Now did you have to work to get this money? Did you have to jump through any hoops to get this money? Do you have to pay taxes on this money? Nope, you just had to be smart enough to get what’s rightfully yours to keep.”
They usually joke about whether the money in their hand is theirs and I say, “Yes it is, if you follow through on the things we’ve talked about today… but it’s not going to come from me, it’s going to come from the IRS and your investment company when you quit over paying. So that money is mine… your money comes from the people that have been taking it from you for years, without telling you.”
This little technique has made me hundreds of thousands of dollars. It takes the abstract and makes it concrete. It takes what’s on paper and makes it real. Try it out and see for yourself the effect it has on people. Heck, you’re not earning any interest on the money in the bank anyways. Why not use it to make a point that gets them moving.
